The Conference

The project conference will be taking place on Friday 6th November at the Science Museum, London. You can book your free place here: Eventbrite booking

The key note speaker is Dr Sheila Watson, Department of Museum Studies, University of Leicester.

The conference will explore the historical trajectories of stored, ‘unloved’ and overlooked collections and examine the role that the study of emotion can play in understanding their significance.

This interdisciplinary conference combined both theoretical and practical explorations of the theme. Themes include:
• Historical and/or contemporary accounts of collectors and their relationships with collections
• The physical and psychological movements of collections within museums over time
• The role of enchantment, play and games in reigniting care for ‘unloved’ collections
• Digital approaches to researching and reimagining ‘unloved’ collections
• The physical properties and aesthetics of being in a museum storeroom
• Co-production with enthusiasts and/or inexpert audiences
• Creative or artistic interventions in stored collections
• Measuring cultural value in relation to ‘unloved’ collections
• Theoretical approaches to love, care and emotion in relation to material culture

The call for papers is now closed:

We are still asking for online papers in the form of 750 word blog posts about specific ideas, collections or projects which will be added to the project blog.Please send to research@sciencemuseum.ac.uk

We have a small number of travel bursaries for PhD students. Please e-mail us making a case for a travel bursary (with rough costings) if you wish to be considered for this funding.